Paddy Roche, his brother and supporters returned to Munster overjoyed. The boy from Cork was now a double national champion, and great opportunities were about to come his way.
The year 1907 also marked his international debut. On the last Saturday in June he competed in the annual contest between Ireland and Scotland. Roche travelled to the event held at the Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, the home of Glasgow Rangers. If he was nervous about his first appearance in Irish colours he kept such feelings well hidden.
He entered the 100-yard race, and came first. He ran the distance in 10.4 seconds, finishing a good yard ahead of his nearest opponent. In the 220-yard race he did not disappoint his watching teammates. He again triumphed with an impressive time of 22.8 seconds, 5 yards ahead of his closest rival. Ireland won by six events to Scotland’s five. Roche’s success was picked up by the watching journalists, who noted that he won both races ‘rather easily’. His style of running and his pace caught the eye of both reporters and the officials from the Irish team. In June 1908 he returned to Dublin to defend his 100-yard title. In front of a large and enthusiastic crowd, which included Dublin’s Lord Mayor Joseph Patrick Nannetti and Lady Mayoress, Roche proved that he was not prepared to relinquish his crown, and he won the 100-yard championship easily.
A month later he again swapped his Knockrea vest for an Irish one as he crossed the Irish Sea for the fourteenth annual contest between the athletes of Ireland and Scotland, which took place at Edinburgh’s Saughton Exhibition Grounds. Conditions were dull, but a sizeable crowd of 8,000 turned up to watch proceedings. For Paddy Roche, the event was very important. He was undoubtedly keen to repeat his success of the previous year, but he also wanted to put in a good performance ahead of the London Olympics, which were due to start within days. In Edinburgh he was again selected for two events, the 100-yard race and the 220-yard sprints. He won the 100-yard contests with a time of 10.6 seconds, and was a good yard ahead of his nearest rival. In the longer event he was a little slower than the previous year, and was pushed into second place by a yard. It was a successful afternoon for the Irish squad, and when the results came in from all the track and field events Ireland had won by 8 points to 3.
Nine days later, Paddy Roche was in London to compete in the most important race of his life. The 1908 Olympic Games were not meant to have been hosted in London, and were initially planned to take place in the city of Rome. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906, however, meant that resources were needed to rebuild homes, and the Italian authorities felt they could not fund the Games, so an alternative venue was needed. With just two years to go, the International Olympic Committee approached Lord Desborough, William Henry Grenfell, the chairman of the British Olympic Association, to see if London could host the Games. Desborough, who was very keen on the idea, got the support of King Edward VII, and then accepted the offer from the Olympic authorities. In 1906, despite the short timeframe, preparations began to host the Games in England, and a new 66,000 capacity stadium was built at White City.
The Games, which began in April 1908 and lasted for six months, were surrounded by controversy. At the opening ceremony the United States team refused to lower their flag as they passed King Edward, who was in the royal enclosure. Concerns were also raised by Finnish competitors when they were asked to march behind the flag of Tsarist Russia.When the competitions finally got underway, the Americans lodged a series of complaints about the way in which the rules were being interpreted, querying a number of decisions taken by officials.
On 20 July 1908, Paddy Roche competed for Great Britain and Ireland, and wearing his white running vest he took to the track in the White City Stadium for the 100-metre heats. In front of a supportive, noisy crowd, Roche knew what he had to do, and those familiar with his achievements were hoping for great things.
The Cork man was expected to qualify, and with a time of 11.4 seconds he came home first. The next day’s 100-metre semi-final was a much tougher affair, and in fine weather he took his place at the starting line. He was up against two Americans, William Wyman ‘Willie’ May and Lester Stevens, and a South African, Reggie Walker. The race did not go well, and Roche struggled to keep up with his rivals. Walker, the eventual Gold medallist, showed great pace, and in the final forty metres pulled away to win the race pretty comfortably. Roche was pushed into third place by Willie May, which meant that he was out of that particular championship. He had little time to deal with his disappointment and had no opportunity to dwell on what went wrong.
On the same day he took part in the heats of the 200 metres.
Roche knew that only the winners qualify for the next round, so the pressure was on him to perform well. This was his final opportunity to make an impact at the world’s biggest sporting event. He was up against athletes from Holland, Canada and the United States, but he finished strongly, securing a good time of 22.8 seconds. It meant that he could progress to the semi-final, thus keeping his chances of an Olympic medal alive. Four semi-final heats were planned for the following day, with the winner of each heat going through to the 200metre final. Roche was placed in the fourth heat, which included George Hawkins, who was also running for Great Britain. Hawkins was an accomplished athlete, and he got off to a great start. In the final seconds he narrowly beat Paddy Roche, and as Roche crossed the finishing post he fell over. He was down and out, and the fall on the White City track ended any thoughts of an Olympic medal.
Despite the controversy over the opening ceremony and arguments over the interpretation of the rules, the London Games were deemed to be a success. Lessons were learned by the Olympic hierarchy. In future Games standard international rules were applied, and judges and competition officials were appointed from an international pool rather than being appointed from the host nation.
The Olympic experience in London did little to diminish Roche’s desire to run at international level, and he continued to train and take part in competitions, both local and national.
On the last Monday in May in 1909, he returned to Dublin to take part in the Irish Amateur Athletic Association championships, in which he won his third consecutive title as champion in the 100yards event, but he was placed second to William Murray in the 220yard race. In 1910 he was selected to represent Ireland in the annual contest against Scotland at the Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow.
He completed his two specialised disciplines of the 100 yards and 200 yards with mixed results. In the 100-yard event he sneaked home by inches into first place, but in the 220-yards he was pushed into third place, a good four yards behind the runner-up.
He graduated from University College Cork with an engineering degree, after which he applied to join the Indian Civil Service. When the Great War began he served with the Indian Army Reserve of Officers, and also with the 1st King George’s Own Sappers and Miners. He was awarded a Military Cross for showing exceptional courage on active service.
Paddy Roche’s final days were spent in Baghdad, in what was then referred to as Mesopotamia. The city of Baghdad was the headquarters of the Turkish Army, which finally fell to Anglo-Indian troops in March l917. While stationed there Paddy Roche contracted typhoid. The condition proved fatal, and on 25 August 1917 he died.
When the news of his death reached home, it naturally made headlines across the country. The Freeman’s Journal in August 1917 stated that his death would be received with ‘poignant regret’. Irish athletics lost a giant when Paddy Roche died, and it is clear that his passing was felt well beyond the confines of the city of Cork.
It was his running style and easy manner that made Paddy Roche stand out from other athletes. He ran effortlessly, which was a feature that the Cork Weekly Examiner picked up on when it profiled him. The paper’s correspondent wrote:
The strange thing about P.J. Roche was that, in racing parlance, he never ‘sprinted’ – he ‘ran’. He never seemed to be doing his best, so easy did it all come to him. A fall from a horse